[lit-ideas] Press eyes perversion; Voice urges rebellion
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 11:51:49 -0400
extract of http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0516,schanberg,63150,6.html
Press Clips
A Time for Disobedience
Faced with Bush's lockdown on information, reporters have to stand up
by Sydney H. Schanberg
April 19th, 2005 10:24 AM
The press is now looking squarely at a perversion of government. The
administration of George W. Bush has raised secrecy and information
control to a level never before seen in Washington.
The falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction that gave the White
House the public support to wage war in Iraq may be the most vivid
example of the perversion, but the practice permeates all corners of the
Bush government.
The press has been grappling with how to cope with this extreme control
and distortion of news, some reporters and editors more than others. One
possibility they might consider is civil resistance, as in quiet,
nonviolent, respectful rebellion.
Take Ron Hutcheson, the White House correspondent for the Knight-Ridder
papers. He has been fighting the battle—and at times has found himself
alone. When the White House billed a press briefing about a Bush foreign
trip last year as on the record and then changed it on the spot to off
the record, a couple of other journalists complained briefly. Hutcheson
kept arguing for a return to the original ground rules or at least an
explanation. It was futile. The anonymous official told him: "This is
the way we do it. If you don't like it, you can leave." "I just got
pissed off and I walked out," recalls Hutcheson. None of the others
followed him.
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